One Word Riddle

Here is a brain teaser for you!

What if this was the only question on the exam to pass high school English and earn your diploma. Would you graduate?!?!?!?!?  Hmmm . . . let’s see . . .

What nine letter word in the English language is still a word when one of the nine letters is removed one by one?

Take a few minutes to try and come up with a nine-letter word that fits the bill, then scroll down for the answer → → →

HEY, NO PEEKING until you try to come up with the word! 

 

 

GIVE UP?!

 

 

 

 

Okay, here it is!  Drum roll please ♦ ♦ ♦

 

 

STARTLING

Look at how this word changes from one to the next:

STARTING 

STARING

STRING

STING

SING

SIN

IN

I

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Good Readers Do This!

The ELITE EIGHT Strategies Good Readers Automatically Do When Reading:

Predict
I think that . . . ! The clues I used were . . . !
In previewing the headlines, subheads, or graphics, I believe this chapter will be about . . .

Summarize
I get the gist of the paragraph by noting the key words!
I identify the main idea by determining which details are important and which are not.
The theme of the story is . . .

Make connections
I know this about this subject!
This reminds me of something in my life, of another book, of a real world event. . .

Infer
I am inferring by using clues in the text along with what I already know about the subject!
I also use text structure to make inferences.

Ask questions
I am wondering . . .!?!
I actively search for answers to my questions as I read.

Visualize
There’s a movie playing in my head while I read!
I create images in my head when I am reading by paying attention to specific words and phrases.

Evaluate
What do I think of the text, the author’s style, ideas and/or my reading?
How is this text credible or biased?

Monitor
Does the reading make sense?
What can I fix  if I do not understand the text?

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Smart Ways to Enter and Exit a Classroom

On this relaxing Sunday afternoon, I’m writing strategy suggestions for my school’s Applied Technology department.  As their literacy coach, I meet with the department every week to discuss, share, and observe their incorporation of reading and writing in the classroom.  A shout out to these six motivated teachers!!! I thought many of my followers would be interested in some of the material I am sharing with them:

Entrance and Exit Slips

The Applied Techies are looking for a productive way to ‘wrap-up’ class and/or lab time as well as a smart way to re-group and refresh before beginning the next class:

Entrance slips (index cards, sticky notes, small slips of paper, whatever your fancy) are completed before class and students bring them in to enter the door. Exit slips are the students’ passes out of the classroom. This writing-to-learn strategy can be used for many purposes in all content areas:

• Focusing student attention on the lesson to be taught the next day

• Setting the tone for the class lesson

• Accessing background knowledge

• Troubleshooting

• Reflecting

Entrance and exit slips are a way to ease students into writing … and, in the course of writing a sentence or two, reveal what they think about a topic, materials, or teaching strategies.

EXAMPLE Entrance Slip
Woods – Fall 2009
Name ____________________ Date __________
Please write an answer to this question in 2 – 3 complete sentences:
How can a worker set up a safe workshop that will meet OSHA standards?  (provide at least three examples)

Some Other Suggestions:
~ How did you respond to last night’s reading?
~ How did yesterday’s measuring problems go?
~ What is a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI)?
~ What worries you about today’s class?
~ Name the three most important things you learned?
~ What are you still confused about?
~ How does what we do in class relate to other things you do or experience?
~ What would you like to ask about today/tomorrow?

*Have students complete exit slips and entrance slips on topics such as : what I learned in class; how it relates to what I know; what is still unclear

*Students reflect on assessments: I prepared by ___; I could have ___; I would change____ if I did it again; doing this made me understand ______

*Have students reflect on the lesson; This lesson I_______; next time I will__________

Teacher challenge:  Reflect on your day or week or particular lesson.  What do you want to change?  How did you function best as a teacher?  How do you learn best – and how have you expressed that to your students?  Share what YOU write with your students as well!

As GG states . . . write it down, write it down, there’s something magical about writing it down!

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Read Alouds Rock

Hardly a month goes by that I don’t run across research reiterating the highly significant benefits of read aloud in both the classroom and home.  In honor of Teacher Tuesday, this post concentrates on the classroom.  The following are prompts I use with my students to enhance their digestion of information.

Teachers can use the read aloud as a common text and model the reading strategies as well as explain literary techniques such as foreshadowing and flashback . . .

Think-Aloud Prompts I Say Aloud to Model My Thought Process During Reading ~

(these should not take longer than about a minute)

• Prepare students to listen to the selection by activating and building their prior knowledge.
• Predict what will happen next; offer support from the text.
• Make a connection to yourself, family, community or world issues.
• State that a passage confuses you, then show how you unconfuse yourself by rereading or using visual context clues such as photographs, illustrations, diagrams, charts, maps or graphs.
• Pinpoint an unfamiliar word and show how you use context clues.
• Stop and infer what you think a character’s personality is like and explain what in the text helped you determine this.
• Explain point of view and show students how you use your knowledge of pronouns to figure this out.
• Reread a short, tough passage to show how this strategy helps you understand.
• Point out a flashback and explain what you learn from it.
• Show how the main character changes from beginning to end and explain what made him/her change.
• Point out these narrative elements and spotlight one or two until students “get it.”
  • protagonist and problems faced
  • antagonistic forces and how each works against the protagonist
  • setting
  • conflicts
  • minor characters
  • climax
  • denouement or return to normalcy
  • point out these informal informational text features
  • sidebar
  • diagram
  • chart or map
  • quote
  • part of a letter
  • newspaper clip
  • photograph and caption

Questions/Prompts I Use to Engage Students While Reading Aloud

• What will this character do or decide?  How do you know?
• Is this character similar to anyone you know?  How?
• What information did you gather from this sidebar?
• State the problem the protagonist faces now.  Predict how he/she will solve it.
• Can you explain the antagonistic force at work here and how it works against the protagonist?
• Can you identify a theme?
• What is the point of view?  How do you know?
• Can you connect the title to the story?
• What new information did you learn?
• Did this information change your thinking?  If so, how?
• How would you solve that problem differently?
• Is there a community/world issue this part of the story addresses?

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